The Moonstone
by Anonymous Wulf
Summary: The Marai are an underwater race of beings that depend on a moonstone which has to be retrieved by The Tidecaller. The Tidecaller had too go to the depths of the sea to collect a pearl. This time The Tidecaller is Nami. She is confident in getting the stone to save her people, but what happens when The Bearer of the moonstone doesn't show up?
1. Chapter 1: A Fish Out of Water

I was laying down on the beach in the cove while the tide was in. I had been sitting out here for a few days with my traveling bag and The Tidecallers Staff. The sun was starting to set on my fourth day. I had been waiting for The Bearer of the Moonstone for too long he should've came by now and it worried me that he wasn't here. Impatiently, I called to the power of the sea and the water blessed me with levitation so I could float. I brought myself up and exited the cove to see the beach itself. It was very small with small ground cliffs that led up into the land of the buildings. My people warned me about the surface world and I was not eager to go see it. I looked back at the ocean and then at my satchel containing the pearl. I couldn't return without the moonstone or else my people would die this year.

I had no choice, I turned around and approached the banks. I reached one arm to the top of the small cliff, then the other arm, and then I pulled myself up with The Tidecallers Staff strapped to my back. I took a look around and it honestly took my breath away. Not the sight, but the smell.

The surface world had many humans walking around inside buildings and there were many loud noises coming from the inside. Males walked, or should I say stumbled, around while holding some bottles. I wasn't sure what to do. I didn't have a destination or even a clear idea of what to do. Eventually someone noticed me, It was one of those males stumbling around, he took a puzzling look at me and declared out loud:

"I've been drinking too much already? That lass looks like a bloody mermaid! Aha!"

The human then walked into a building where I could hear people singing and dancing. Clearly I was going to have to find a coherent human around somewhere before…

I stopped in mid thought because as I looked down the street I saw something strange. A small creature with some kind of aquatic body. The creature looked like it was enjoying itself with the other humans and adapted to life on the land. Surely they would be able to help me. I glided my way towards him pushing past people giving me puzzled looks. At one point I heard a small child yell:

"Mommy look!" she said "A mermaid!"

I wasn't sure what a mermaid was, but apparently I looked like them. When she said that the humans from everywhere started pointing at me until I reached the fellow underwater friend.

"Excuse me" I said politely "I need some assistance."

The men he was around were all looking at me with wide eyes and half open mouths. Then the aquatic being turned around and stood up and I almost dropped The Tidecallers Staff.

"You- you're- but" I stumbled arounded absolutely flabbergasted by what I was seeing.

"A Maria?" He said with an interested smile on his face.

"What happened to you?" was all I could muster. I recognized his race we used to trade with them some hundred years ago. One day however, they just suddenly cut off all communication. They disappeared. Out of worry we sent an ambassador and a few bodyguards, but they came back and said that the city was empty. No signs of a struggle or of their packing. Their homes were full of their things. It was like they all just decided to swim away and they were never heard from again.

Before the young sea dweller could respond we heard some yelling from a group of humans passing by.

"Well well well," One bigger male said in a taunting way "Looks like Miss Fortunes crew really is just full of freaks."

"Oh look what came out of the chum bucket and learned how to walk" One of the males with the sea dweller said "What brings you up and around this side of the deck."

"We was just layin around at the bar when we thought it was time to deliver you guys a beating again" The male pounded his hand into his other hand and squished until it made cracking sounds. I felt like they were trying to establish dominance which as much fun as that would be, I was not here for. As I was swimming out of the way I heard a soft click behind me. When I turned I saw one of them was holding a gun at me.

"Hey," The sea dweller said "You leave her alone, she has nothing to do with this,"

"Well maybe its time she learns how we do it in Bilgewater" he said.

The man put his gun down and I immediately lashed out power from my staff for an aqua prison. A huge water bubble came out of the staff and engulfed the sailor. Everyone else took this as the first shot and just started hitting each other. I swam away and blasted the people who tried to chase me. People in the bars were even fighting. I wasn't sure what kind of riot ensued but I was able to steer clear until I was tackled by a much bigger male. Luckily, I was able to squirm out of the way, but as I tried to imprison him he knocked the staff out of my hand and pulled out a sword. I scooted away as much as I could, but the big brute raised his sword.

Out from behind him the sea dweller landed on him and whacked him with his staff. Dazed the brute tried to swing at him, but he was too fast. The sea dweller elegantly jumped around him leaving cuts everywhere until he finally just stuffed some odd looking fish in the brutes mouth. I was very confused and the sea dweller dropped in front of me and dragged me along as he yelled:

"Shark!"

In about a second a huge shark somehow appeared out of the ground and swallowed the brute whole. I was so confused, but all I could do was watch the shark sink down into the ground without leaving a trace besides the brutes sword on the ground. A lot of people saw the shark eat the giant brute and began backing off. Until it finally seemed like everyone got away. The sea dweller got up and approached me.

"Hi im Fizz" he said

He sounded like a raspy voiced child, but watching him fight made me think that he had years of experience. They were rumored to be fierce fighters and immortal. Well the fact that he was alive was huge.

A more slim human ran up to us and turned to Fizz.

"Fizz!" He said "She is here and she wants to see you" Then he turned to look at me and said "and she wants to see you too."

"I have no time to deal with the fights of humans," I said.

he pulled out his gun "Unfortunately," he said "This isn't optional."


	2. Chapter 2: Dealing With a Pirate

The staff was taken away from me leaving me defenseless in the surface world. They kept prodding the gun against my back as Fizz and I were led to a building with the same singing, dancing, and stumbling humans as if there weren't enough already. Fizz kept on telling me not to worry, but I didn't trust humans at all even trusting Fizz was seeming like a bad idea. The building was named Fortunes Favor and as we entered some of the humans escorting us went to interact with some female humans in the building. The rest of them took me into a room in the back where I was greeted by a room lit by small fires on wax. The room was long enough to fit us all and was decorated much better than the city outside. At the other end was a desk with a female human with red hair writing something on paper.

The red-haired female looked up at me and cocked her head to the side like she was studying me until she finally got up and said:

"So, I heard there was a fight today that cost me some of my men and people are saying it started with you."

She began to approach me as if to seem intimidating and I looked down at her belt and saw two pistols expertly crafted almost looking new but also used. I looked back up at her and saw a look of pure confidence in her eyes. Unfortunately for her I didn't have time for this:

"If you call threatening me for no reason starting a fight then yes" I said.

She gave me a coy smile. She didn't need to pull out her guns just her looking at me made me feel threatened.

"Who are you?" she asked in a more serious tone.

"I don't have time for this." I said.

"Well make time" she said "otherwise we'll keep your toy."

"That is not a toy!" I said.

Her eyebrows raised at me in a cocky way and she went to grab it from the human that was holding it. She looked at closely running her finger among the inscriptions.

"What does all this say?" she almost whispered to herself.

She turned to me and instead of pulling out her guns and pointing them at me she grabbed them and my staff and laid them down on her desk.

"Listen I think we have gotten off on the wrong foot" she said in a calming tone.

She went behind her desk and sat down while talking off her hat. She put her hands up in and motioned them down. All the humans in the room put their guns down and she looked up at me saying:

"I am Miss Fortune, pirate captain, bounty hunter, and owner of Favors Fortune. Who are you?"

I took a look around the room wondering if I could make my escape, but my eyes landed on Fizz and he nodded at me. I turned back to face Miss Fortune.

"I am Nami" I said "The Tidecaller of the Marai and I'm searching for a moonstone to save my people."

Sarah cocked her head to slightly to the left.

"Youre searching for what?" She asked

"Every hundred years the Tidecaller of the Marai has to go collect a moonstone" I explained "The moonstone lightens and heats our home deep under the sea."

She nodded her head and asked "Do you know Fizz or anything of his people?"

I looked over at Fizz and he gave me a slight shake of the head. Did that mean no? Was he keeping his identity a secret from his companions up here?

"No" I said "I've never seen anything like him."

"Well Nami" She said "I may be a pirate but I'm still a businesswoman and I have a deal for you."

She stood up putting her guns and hat back on along with grabbing the staff.

"Rumor has it that there is treasure underneath a cove on Watchers Bay" she said "I would fetch it myself, but I prefer to not be around giant crowds of my enemies"

"Its more than just a cove though" A rather quiet Fizz explained "It's an underwater cave that is home to a very brutal and metallic monster, I tried to get it myself once before, but…"

"What do I get in return?" I asked

"I'll take you to a place where I'm sure you will find the moonstone or at the very least be given another place to try." She said.

"Deal" I said. I didn't care about her treasure at all, but with this deal at least I had a direction to go to.

"Perfect" She said "You'll leave tomorrow at dawn and my crew will pick you up and take you to where I instruct them."

**I'm going to try to keep the chapters relatively short to not bore anyone. I should also be putting up a chapter daily unless I get really busy so be patient with me. Thank you guys so much for your support and feel free to give me constructive criticism and suggestions you may have. 3**


	3. Chapter 3: With Treasure Comes a Monster

**Im sorry guys, personal problems have been popping up this week and technical problems popped up on the weekend (My computer erased all the chapters I had written and I have to rewrite everything now). Ill be a little slow for the next few days, but then I should be right on track. Sorry Guys 3**

I had spent the night inside the building which I learned was a "bar". Bars are places for people to drink alcohol and be drunk. I wanted to talk to Fizz, but he stayed with his human companions and drank with them. They seemed awfully surprised since it takes a lot to get a sea dweller drunk. I awoke at dawn and grabbed the staff immediately and met up with Fizz and Miss Fortune. We stood at the end of a dock and I noticed Fizz changed his small spear for a more traditional trident.

"Good luck sailor" Miss fortune said to Fizz.

Fizz gave her a nod and dove right into the water and I dove in after him.

Bilgewater was an island on a stony base with a lot of holes in it with many other types of fish and water snakes. Fizz seemed to know what he was doing and went into these underwater tunnels like he knew everything about them. I followed closely behind. I couldn't stop worrying about my people I had left at the right time and the moonstone was definitely going to last for about a month, but what would happen after that? What if I failed and couldn't find it?

_Don't worry Nami Ill help you _I heard in my head.

I stopped swimming and looked over at Fizz. Most sea dwellers are taught at a young age how to speak using telepathy or sound waves. I was taught both, but as far as I knew Fizz's species spoke in sound waves.

"You use telepathy" I said telepathically to him.

"Yeah" he replied swimming away.

I swam after him making sure I kept the conversation going.

"So how did you meet with these humans and Miss Fortune?" I asked.

"One day I decided to go into the surface world to find help all these people tried to catch me, but I was able to escape them and hurt them at the same time." He said "They cut me off from returning to the sea, but I was able to sneak into a workshop where they were building a ship. Thats where I met Miss Fortune and she took me onto her crew"

We stopped abruptly to let a school of colorful fish swam past a tunnel.

"She just took you in?" I asked

"Dont get me wrong Nami" he said "I had to work my share but after about a year they began seeing me as equal and even a friend."

The school of fish went by and I asked the question I had wanted answered ever since I knew about his species.

"What happened to the Atlanteans Fizz?" I asked.

Fizz came to a complete stop and turned to look at me.

"I dont know" he said "I had gotten out to explore the outside on my own, but I got into a shark fight. I went home scared and injured, but when I got back they were just gone. I had only been gone for about a day and they just all left with everything behind. So I took my shark bait, tridents, and extra clothes. I know just as much as everyone does"

"How old are you?" I asked

"I am one hundred and twelve years old," he said "I'm pretty young"

I was going to ask a bit more, but we felt a rumble in the caves.

"Lets keep going," FIzz said.

I followed behind him as we swam through the web of tunnels finding all sorts of fish and crabs that weren't to happy with us passing through. After a few minutes we exited the caves and made it to the other side of the island where we saw an underwater cave leading almost straight down.

"This is it," Fizz said.

He swung his spear around and the blades began to glow like an angler fish. We descended down into the entrance. I was fearing what kind of monster could live down here. There were traces of old homes like burrowed holes, old cracked shells, hiding places… Now it was just empty with traces of destruction all over the cave the deeper we go. After about a minute we lost all light from the surface and Fizz's trident glew brighter. Everything was silent and ominous as we finally made our way to the end of the cave.

Fizz's light illuminated the mess of metallic objects at its end and right at the base of cave wall was a single wooden chest. We looked at each other and cautiously made our way to it. Fizz jammed his trident into the lock and forced it to break. Then i cautiously grabbed the lid and opened it. We looked inside and saw bottles filled with colored liquid and surrounded by different colored crystals like diamonds.

We rummaged through, admiring their beauty when suddenly we heard a loud scraping noise of rust and metal.

"Ugh" FIzz and I groaned at the noise.

The sound made me cringe as some of the cave roof began to collapse. Rocks rained down from the ceiling as I used a bubble prison to engulf around the chest and swim away with FIzz. I was able to narrowly escape some of the boulders with my sleek swimming style, but Fizz had to smash through some of them with some impeccable strength. We escaped the sudden collapse of the roof and kept on swimming away. I looked back at the rubble for a second to see the destruction we left behind. I was thinking about what caused the sudden collapse and what made that awful noise when i rammed straight into Fizz. Fizz had completely stopped and was looking at something in front of him that made me cringe.

A giant metal beast stood in front of us with large glowing eyes peeking through a slot. He had one arm down his side and the other was holding an anchor that looked liked it crashed into the wall. The metal looked like armor or a shelling melted around a large body because he wasn't moving very smoothly in it. In fact, the metal looked like it was badly rusted.

He turned to see us and then shifted his eyes behind me to the chest inside my aqua bubble. In a much faster move than I anticipated, he pulled out the anchor and swung at us. Fizz managed to get away in time meanwhile I was hit and crashed into the whale with a heavy thud. When I got up I saw Fizz and the beast dueling it out. Fizz was much faster, but his attacks seemed ineffective against the giant beast, even worse he was tiring out and just one blow would send him tumbling to his death. I pulled myself up and grabbed my fallen staff that was some how still holding on to the chest. I swam up to the entrance of the cave to get into a better positioning. I lifted the tidecallers staff above my head and concentrated.

I looked up onto the surface and called onto the water currents to swirl. The staff responded to my will and gave a small glow. The water began to whirl around until I had managed to make a concentrated whirlpool. I threw it straight at the beast and it threw him off. He went of balance for a small while, but it was enough to let Fizz get away. He swam towards me and I gave him a small boost with a current. We swam out of the cave in a hurry. As we went through the caves under the island I turned to see him try and chase us. Instead I saw a huge anchor almost hit and lodge itself unto the wall next to us. I turned right around sped us up with a current.

We came out on the other side of the island and emerged unto the surface. We went to the beach and just layed there exhausted from the chase. We looked over at each other and gave a nod. We layed there for a few seconds before getting up. The aqua bubble had popped when we entered the surface so I created another one meant for the surface and brought it to my side. Fizz and I looked at it and then each other until we gave out a small laugh.

An anchor swung straight out of the water and landed right in between Fizz and I. We got away from it as the huge beast pulled himself out of the water on a chain that was connected on the anchor. He didn't exactly pull himself out, it looked more like the anchor pulled him and with very incredible speed. In no time he was on the beach.

He look slightly confused for a bit like the time I first came out of the water. I looked over at Fizz as we heard shouting and yelling from further up the land. The beast took a look at Fizz and then at me. Once he saw the chest he swung at me again except this time he was interrupted by a cannon shot straight into his side. He turned to look at the cannon and in one foul swoop he smashed it into pieces. Then the sailors and captains of the area began firing thier own guns at the beast. He found it annoying and began smasking through the land hitting everyone who even yelled at him I began to swim to join the fight when I heard a very gruffy voice behind me yell:

"What in the name of Davy Jones is going on over 'ere!"

I turned around out of curiosity and saw a man in a typical pirate outfit but this one was mor orange and he had a hat. I looked down at his belt and was surprised to see just one gun starpped to it with just one sword on his other side. I looked a little closer to the sword and saw it seemed to be covered by some muk.

"You there!" The man yelled "Whats Miss Fortune been doin around here lettin all dees sea monsters on Bilgewater!"

He always seemed to yell. I felt a little odd being called a sea monster since most humans were just entranced by me, but then another voice came from my right.

"What the hell are you doing here Gangplank!" Miss Fortune yelled.

Miss Fortune came out of her inn armed to the teeth in a much more covering outfit.

"Im 'ere to save Bilgewater from yer stupid mistakes!" He yelled "Things go smoothly when yer not 'ere!"

They both drew thier weapons when another cannon was thrown into the sea behind them along with a screaming male. They both looked at the giant metal beast tearing up the town.

"If you guys are so intent on saving Bilgewater then you better start now." I said in a huff.

They looked at each other with a final glare and ran up to the fight. I went for it to join them when I noticed a glint out of the corner of my eye. I looked out into the sea and saw a ship some what in the distance reflectiong sunlight onto the land. It looked incredibly strange, but then I heard a loud and familiar:

"Shark!"

I snapped back to the battle and charged in leaving the chest on the sand.


End file.
